This document provides a case study about a partnership between an insurance company (IFA) and grocery chain (ShopSense) to share customer data. IFA's regional manager Laura Brickman wants to buy ShopSense's customer loyalty card data to identify correlations between purchases and medical claims. While this could provide business value, executives at both companies have concerns about customer privacy and reaction if they found their data was being shared. The case aims to discuss how companies can responsibly use shared customer data to avoid damaging customer trust and relationships.

1. Syeda Laila Ali Jaffery

2. This is a Harvard Business Review (HBR) Case Study.
Publication Date: May 01, 2007.
Discipline: Strategy
Subjects Covered: Analytics, Business Ethics, Customer
Privacy, Customer Relationship
Management, Data mining.

3. DESCRIPTION
Health insurer IFA and grocery chain ShopSense have formed an intriguing partnership, but it
threatens to test customers' tolerance for sharing personal information. For years, IFA's regional
manager, Laura Brickman, had been championing the use of customer analytics. She came away
from a meeting with Steve Worthington, convinced that ShopSense's customer loyalty card data
could be meaningful. In a pilot test, Laura bought ten years' worth of data from the grocer and
found some compelling correlations between purchases of unhealthy products and medical
claims.
Now she has to sell her company's senior team on buying more information. Her bosses have some
concerns, however. If IFA came up with proprietary health findings, would the company have to
share what it learned? Meanwhile, Steve is busy trying to work out details of the sale with executives
at ShopSense. Many have expressed support, but COO Alan Atkins isn't so sure: If customers found
out that the store was selling their data, they might stop using their cards, and the company would
lose access to vital information. Though CEO Donna Greer agrees, she knows that if things go well, it
could mean easy money. How can the two companies use the customer data responsibly?

4. Commenting on this
fictional case study are
George L. Jones, the CEO of
Borders Group; Katherine N.
Lemon, an associate
professor of marketing at
Boston College; David
Norton, the senior vice
president of relationship
marketing for Harrah's
Entertainment; and Michael
B. McCallister, the president
and CEO of Humana.

5. Learning Objective:
 This case depicts an insurance
company considering buying
customer data from a grocery
chain to identify correlations
between grocery purchases
and insurance claims and to
design insurance products
based on those correlations.
The reader considers how
both companies can use such
data responsibly--for example,
by avoiding damaging
customer relationships and by
correctly interpreting the
data.